In 2025, Remco Evenepoel started his season by beating compatriot Wout van Aert in a two-man sprint to win De Brabantse Pijl in a brilliant victory. But that very win might have been what lost him the Amstel Gold Race.
One year ago, Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose chased down a long-range attack by Tadej Pogačar with 12km to go in the finale of Amstel, but Evenepoel waited for the sprint and ended up third behind the winner Skjelmose and the world champion Pogačar.
This year, Evenepoel's team manager, Klaas Lodewyck, is advising him to change up his strategy.
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The 257.2-kilometre 2026 Amstel Gold Race route features 33 ascents and a similar finish, 1.7km after the Cauberg as last year.
According to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Klaas Lodewyck, Evenepoel was too confident in taking last year's Amstel Gold Race down to a sprint because of the confidence he gained from beating Van Aert just days before. "In hindsight, that sprint victory against Wout in Overijse was a somewhat poisoned gift," Lodewyck told Het Laatste Nieuws.
"Riding on the euphoria and fearless, he rode to the finish with Pogi while the latter was on the verge of breaking. And Skjelmose would also have been dropped with a strong acceleration on the final Cauberg," Lodewyck said. "In the sprint, Tadej and he didn't want to be outdone by each other, with the well-known consequences. A shame."
With that lesson learned, Lodewyck believes Evenepoel should take the race in hand earlier and not wait for a sprint on the Cauberg.
"He doesn't necessarily have to ride away forty or fifty kilometres from the finish. The chance is still there to potentially make the difference there after a tough race. Use it, I would say. Just like Philippe Gilbert, Enrico Gasparotto, and many others have done in the distant past.
"If it doesn't work out, Remco can always count on his sprinting speed. In the Volta a Catalunya, we saw that he shouldn't be afraid to go to the finish with someone," he said. Evenepoel finished second in the bunch sprint on the first stage and third on the final day in Catalunya.
"But the Amstel is a race that invites you to race. If you are in good form and manage to get away, you are out of the pursuers' sight quite quickly. Remco really enjoys that."
In Het Nieuwsblad, four-time Amstel Gold Race winner Philippe Gilbert advised Evenepoel to hold his attacks until deep into the finale.
"In his place, I would stay with my teammates for as long as possible," Gilbert said, pointing out that with Van Aert, Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel all absent, he would carry the pressure as the top Amstel Gold Race favourite.
"His team is going to have to ride from the start. And we are talking about more than 250 kilometres," Gilbert stated. "There is a danger that he will run short of teammates in the final. If he were to ride away with four or five men well before the finish, the weight of the race would fall entirely on him.
"He will then have to do much more work at the front than the others. That really isn't ideal either. That is why I would stay with his teammates for as long as possible."
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